


Rockabye Baby, Rockabye

by laurel_wesley (Wes)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 22:43:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12542868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wes/pseuds/laurel_wesley
Summary: (Add. Tags: The rock band AU nobody asked for, I don't know how to tag this yet, I also don't know how to describe music as seen with Anyway Here's Wonderwall, I love Ronan so please forgive me if there's too fuckiNG MUCH OF HIM, but he still has his pet raven so there's that, highkey inspired by Lindsey Stirling tbh lol, also please forgive the strange wording sometimes haha point anything strange out to me, also no tagged ships because idk where ships are going/if there are any/what I wanna settle on because it may just be an OT5 lbr.)“We lost a member and you want to look at a violinist.”But that was so very Gansey, to want to have a violinist in a rock band. Because he craved the untraditional, and he was searching for the difference, and if this Blue Sargent would get him closer to what he craved then he wanted her too.NOTE: Incomplete and largely unwritten but I needed to post this ASAP lol





	Rockabye Baby, Rockabye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gumifan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gumifan/gifts).



> HAhhah fuck. Where do I begin. My girl Gumifan got me so deep into Raven Cycle hell that not even my body can be dragged out let alone my soul. I love Ronan so much he's my fucking son I just need him to be happy and okay. Let's see what my reading of Blue Lily, Lily Blue will have in store for him. (Though I honestly love all the characters, I can't wait for Adam's arc and Blue in BLLB is gonna be so lIT I can feel it in my bonES.) 
> 
> Anyway I've never written a rock band AU before :D Nor have I played in a band, nor have I picked up a violin in like six years. But I was listening to Roundtable Rival by Lindsey Stirling and I c O ULd NOT Get THIS OUT OF MY HEAD. BLUE AS A VIOLINIST COME ON HAHAHAH 
> 
> this is def not the first chapter and I will edit it more later but for now I just wanted to post it. 
> 
> Here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvipPYFebWc  
> I promise if you listen to it as you read it will sync up with like two points and you'll understand exactly waht was in my head while I was listening I pr om IS E

It was sudden. Gansey just started playing and everyone joined in. Even though they’d rehearsed this, Blue was still left behind by their seamless dynamic. Adam was a strong beat in the back, clapping his hands as he tapped his foot on the bass pedal. Noah was high on the guitar plucking out the rhythm, as Ronan pitched in with his own subtle beats. Gansey played the melody, eyes closed. He listened.

The second measure brought her back, and she placed her bow on her strings. She started the melody just like she’d practiced it, bright and almost overpowering, but the low strum of Ronan’s bass grounded her. Noah was still playing behind her, but she was the main focus now, her high notes making his seem like child’s play.

There was a split second when Adam stopped clapping to pick up his drumsticks. Gansey was suddenly a live wire next to her, his fingers plucking out the rhythm for her to follow. She maybe tried to overshadow him, but her fingers couldn’t move fast enough, locked into their monotony; she wouldn’t stumble, her muscle memory wouldn’t allow her.

Ronan was still plucking away at his bass, now only an accompaniment to Gansey’s vocal playing. Adam was keeping the tempo along with him, head bobbing in time to his twitching leg, just as usual. Suppressed. He had said this wasn’t his song.

Then he looked to Gansey, and his lips curled in crude deep frown.

He was relaxed, and that was nothing like what Gansey ought to have been when he had this violinist on stage. But that meant that Blue wasn’t playing like he wanted her to yet, and that meant that Ronan wasn’t pushing her enough, and if she didn’t find Gansey that difference he craved she had no reason to be here. Blue’s section was coming to an end, and she finished with enough of a head tilt for him to know she was looking at him. Or maybe Adam, but Ronan couldn’t help but smirk. He stepped forward to show her how it was really done.

Gansey was wide-legged focused only on his chorus. Ronan stood behind him, just on one side of his shoulder so he could squarely face Blue and give her a dangerous look as he back Gansey’s music. It was aggressive, his stance, that made him look like he was itching for a fight, and Blue’s face said she knew it.

Noah was plucking the rhythm in the back. Adam’s drums were controlled, powerful, vibrating through Ronan’s spine as he let a grin twist his face. He wondered if Blue had ever felt like this, the king of her scores, untouchable. He wondered if this was how Gansey felt. They started picking up. It was almost Blue’s turn. She played one measure over the humming echo of their instruments.

As she did, her face twisted. Ronan’s expression faltered, and then returned even more smug. She was suddenly a fireball on the stage, stealing back the lead Gansey had coveted. She wasn’t overpower, so much as forcing them to accompany her. And she wanted it. She wanted to be in the spotlight. That was what they asked her to be here for, right? Blue felt Ronan’s bass in her toes, Adam’s drumming in her heartbeat, Noah’s melody in her spine. Her fingers were Gansey’s, dancing lively across the strings of her violin. Out of the corner of her eye, Blue saw some of her bowstrings fraying.

The chorus ended and she was back to her rehearsal. What had she wanted? Why did she so badly want to be in the lead? That wasn’t like her, she realized, and cast a look back to Ronan who merely shook his head at her. She looked to Gansey in the next instant, who had his eyes closed again; but she’d never seen a grin that large on him. Her duet with Adam was accompanied by him, and he seemed to be subtly moving to it. She couldn’t help but want to move too, more than just tap her tow.

The boys played the next bridge, forcing Blue back to following Gansey’s lead. She didn’t want it. She didn’t want to just follow. She wanted to be equal with him. Why did she so badly want to lead? It wasn’t like her at all!

Her playing screamed her confusion right along with The Raven Boys. Noah heard it, glancing up at her back to see if she was doing alright, but all he saw was the girl he’d first glimpsed at the recital, before she started really feeling it. It wasn’t his place, really, but he couldn’t help but adjust the rhythm slightly. Adam’s head snapped to him immediately, his drumming unfazed, but confusion in his scrunched eyebrows and pursed lips. Noah never actively _tried_ to make himself noticed; rhythm guitar was his thing, and he was more than happy to let Gansey and Ronan take the lead. But when he was suddenly taking the lead like this and forcing the others to match him, Adam realized he wasn’t doing it to show Blue up. This was to accompany her, not to outshine. This chorus was played to invite her in, not challenger her.

She perked slightly as she played. It was subtle, but she and Gansey both started dancing. His foot tapped and her hips swayed gently in time to her fast little plucks of the strings. Noah smiled to himself and kept at his pace, bringing the others up around him. Ronan shot him a look that was wholly clouded by the shadows of the spotlight behind him, his base linking with Adam’s drums and finding a rhythm that Gansey fit into perfectly. And right next to him was Blue, swishing her hips and tapping her feet to her own violin as Gansey followed suit, his shoulders swaying in time to how she played.

As they began to wind up to the last stanza, Ronan suddenly wanted something. It was a welling little feeling in his chest he was hesitant place, but he realized as they came to the last note of the measure what he wanted. He snarled at Blue silently, lips curled in a whip-sharp, smug expression and mouthed out:

“Welcome to the band.”

Her face exploded with emotion. She burst onto the stage with a power and passion so ferocious Gansey himself had to take a step back. _Challenge me!_ her playing screamed, _challenge me!_ Because she wanted them to fight her, she wanted Ronan to wipe that smug grin off his face because she was what they needed, not the other way around. Her bow was fraying more and more with every note but she couldn’t stop moving, not when Noah’s rhythm was loud in her ears and Adam’s drums were rattling her very core and Ronan’s baseline was making her heart beat, not when Gansey’s melody wasn’t only on par with her’s but encouraging her to be more, to play more, to play faster stronger _louder more power more passion more more more_ And she wanted it like nothing she’d ever wanted before in her _life_.

There were unnecessary notes she added in at the spur of the moment. It was perfect. It filled a space she didn’t know needed filling until she had. Her fingers were pressing and sliding on strings and her bow was fraying and she was sweating and couldn’t breathe but it didn’t matter. She was where she wanted to be. This was where she wanted her violin playing to take her. This was where she wanted to take these four boys.

Her bow came off the strings. The sudden pregnant silence was only filled with the echo of their instruments and her loud, loud heartbeat. Then there was one clap, and then another, and then the entire audience was roaring for them. In that moment, Blue was more entranced in her own feelings. She was floating, charged with energy and adrenaline, like nothing a recital had ever given her. She wanted more from these boys. She wanted to play on stage with them. She wanted she wanted she wanted and she’d never wanted so much. As she finally let her arm drop (oh god there were so many frayed threads, she’d need to replace them before practice Monday) she turned slightly to glance at Adam and Noah.

Adam was smiling and shaking his head, a little laugh bubbling behind his teeth. Noah was almost beaming at her, his pale eyes bright under the light. He extended a hand for her to bump knuckles with, which she did hesitantly. And then she glanced to Ronan and Gansey.

Ronan was staring. Gansey was bright and grinning and youthful and that entire look was directed at her, which made her eyes widen as she glanced away to the audience again. Ronan had no idea what Blue was thinking, but he knew that face of Gansey’s. He’d heard it, that difference he was looking for. Something about what Ronan had mouthed to her brought Blue to life in some way, affected her so much that she’d tossed everything to the wind and just played with them. He almost wished he knew what it was, but he had an inkling of an idea that it was her pride. Everyone wanted something, Ronan knew that, and he had an idea that Blue wanted something the most of all.


End file.
